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There is evil in Palestine, and that is Hamas, a totalitarian dictatorship that feeds violence, that destroys innocent lives, that resists any attempt at pacification and that has turned fanaticism, terrorism, and provocation into political weapons to eternalize itself in power, enrich itself with the “donations” of the rest of the Muslim world and manage at its whim the lives of millions of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
That same evil is hidden behind the conflict that, once again, wakes up the sirens and the drums of war sound in the Middle East.
Evil in Palestine has a name
The Western press (so addicted to demagogy and drama) paints the story of “bad and powerful Jews” against “good and defenseless Palestinians.” However, the reality is far more complex.
There are myriad nuances to the religious, ethnic, and political conflicts that define life and death in that region of the world. Still, to anyone who is truly paying attention, it is also very clear that Hamas is especially evil.
There is evil in Palestine not just because that group resorts to violence, which after all is common currency throughout the region; but because it takes that violence to grotesque levels of absurdity and cruelty. It was Hamas that this week launched more than 1,000 rockets specifically aimed at civilians in Israel, provoking the more than understandable reaction of that state in defense of its inhabitants.
The absurdity of the case is that Hamas knows that the vast majority of these rockets will not even reach their destination: many will hit and kill people in the Gaza Strip itself, others will be stopped by the spectacular anti-missile defense system developed by the State of Israel, and only a handful of devices will manage to hit “enemy” territory.
Therefore, it is impossible that these missiles will translate into a military victory for the Hamas terrorists. They know well that their missiles neither weaken Israel, nor bring them any closer to a military victory, but still (and while the Palestinian people wallow in poverty) they devote all their effort and resources to manufacturing and launching such devices.
That is the most profoundly perverse thing about Hamas’s approach. Throughout history, governments and peoples have been cruel and have launched the accursed sacrifice of war, but they usually do so when there is a reasonable chance of winning. A standard level of evil focuses on killing soldiers and even civilians of the “enemy” for the sake of achieving a strategically viable objective. Here it is worse.
Evil in Palestine feeds on Palestinian themselves
If they are not going to defeat Israel with their rockets, why launch these missiles? Why provoke the Israeli Army, knowing that (given the conditions of the conflict) the most numerous and most affected victims will always be the Palestinian people themselves and especially the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip?
Because that is precisely the real objective of Hamas attacks. They talk about destroying Israel in order to get fanatics and encourage donations from the rest of the Muslim world, but in practice what they want and what they need is for the Israeli response to generate collateral casualties and keep the Gaza Strip isolated, which thus remains under the absolute control of the terrorists.
In other words, the real goal of Hamas is not to “conquer Israel,” but to cause damage and kill enough innocent Israelis to force the State of Israel to respond to the aggression, and then to take advantage of the inevitable civilian casualties of such a reaction.
The scheme works like this:
Hamas launches thousands of missiles at Israel, which must respond to protect its own citizens. The Israeli army has developed an extraordinary talent for launching retaliatory strikes with minimal damage to the civilian population, but even so it is impossible to avoid them entirely, especially considering that Hamas systematically places its missile launch sites, weapons or explosives stores and military and intelligence facilities in highly populated areas, using civilians as human shields.
The terrorist gamble is that no matter how surgically precise the Israeli defense is, it will result in collateral casualties, whose faces and stories Hamas turns into cannon fodder for the propaganda machine that allows them to collect donations in the Muslim world and “bona fide” endorsements in the Western press.
In short, Hamas is an Army that, instead of going to war to protect its civilians, goes to war hiding among the civilian population, with the direct, obvious and specific goal of maximizing the death toll among its own population and then using the resulting hatred as a funding mechanism.
And Hamas’ damage to Palestinian society itself goes far beyond the civilian casualties they are so fond of provoking. Their terrorist campaigns have forced Israel to erect walls around Gaza and the West Bank, along with other restrictions that are indispensable to contain terrorism, but which also have a direct impact on trade and the quality of life of millions of people in both regions.
The effects of that isolation are especially clear in the Gaza Strip. The Western press is right to call this region the “world’s largest prison”. But they fail to clarify that the real jailers are not the Israelis (who have been spectacularly restrained in their responses to terrorism), but the Hamas terrorists.
They use violence, propaganda, fanaticism and brainwashing to subject their own “people” to a totalitarian and corrupt dictatorship that has no money for electricity, but does have money for thousands of missiles that they launch against Israel in the perverse hope of causing the death, not of the “enemy” (as happens in the rest of the world’s conflicts) but of the Palestinians themselves.
And behind the tragic-comic opera? None other than the Iranian dictatorship. The regime in Tehran has a long-standing geopolitical conflict with Israel, against whom it directs its paid militias in Lebanon (Hezbollah) and the Gaza Strip (Hamas).
The tragedy of evil in Palestine
Yes, the Middle East conflict is very complex. It involves a multitude of interests, prejudices, hatreds, vendettas and hopes. That is undoubtedly true, but it should not blind us to the reality that there is a gulf between Israel and the terrorists.
Yes, throughout the region there are many forms of evil, but the most perverse is the supposedly “Palestinian” fanaticism of Hamas, which specifically targets Jewish civilians, so that Israel’s defense will result in the death of Palestinian civilians. A technique that terrorists will use to keep the people fanaticized, eternalize themselves in power, get millions in donations and carry out the orders and interests of the Iranian regime.
It is much more than politics or war. It is perversion.
Gerardo Garibay Camarena, is a doctor of law, writer and political analyst with experience in the public and private sectors. His new book is "How to Play Chess Without Craps: A Guide to Reading Politics and Understanding Politicians" // Gerardo Garibay Camarena es doctor en derecho, escritor y analista político con experiencia en el sector público y privado. Su nuevo libro es “Cómo jugar al ajedrez Sin dados: Una guía para leer la política y entender a los políticos”